Trophic Cascades in a Formerly Cod-Dominated Ecosystem

Removal of top predators from ecosystems can result in cascading effects through the trophic levels below, completely restructuring the food web. Cascades have been observed in small-scale or simple food webs, but not in large, complex, open-ocean ecosystems. Using data spanning many decades from a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Frank, Kenneth T., Petrie, Brian, Choi, Jae S., Leggett, William C.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2005
Subjects:
Northwest Atlantic
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1113075
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1113075
Description
Summary:Removal of top predators from ecosystems can result in cascading effects through the trophic levels below, completely restructuring the food web. Cascades have been observed in small-scale or simple food webs, but not in large, complex, open-ocean ecosystems. Using data spanning many decades from a once cod-dominated northwest Atlantic ecosystem, we demonstrate a trophic cascade in a large marine ecosystem. Several cod stocks in other geographic areas have also collapsed without recovery, suggesting the existence of trophic cascades in these systems.

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